Raible Designs

It's time for some productivity

Just last night I was wondering how I was going to finish up AppFuse 1.8 and Spring Live's April update in the next 1 1/2 weeks. This morning, I got up early (5:00 a.m.) to get back to work on Spring Live, and found that Julie was already up. She was fed up with the fact that Jack was coughing up a storm and both kids are still sick. They've been sick off-and-on since January (but mostly on), and she's had enough.

Julie tooks Jack to the doctor a month ago and his recommendation was a warm and humid climate. She asked him, "like Florida?" - to which responded, "Yes! That's a great idea!" Since then, she's bought a humidifier, taken showers with Jack every morning and even hit him with the nebulizer a few times. No dice, he's still coughing and wheezing. At 5:00 a.m. this morning, she was fed up and said "I'm going to Florida." 20 minutes later, she'd bought her tickets and we left for the airport around 6:30.

While I'll certainly miss everyone, it's a golden opportunity for me to work on AppFuse and Spring Live and get caught up this weekend. Of course, I have to work an extra day in the mix to pay for the (spendy) flights, but it's nice being a contractor and having that as an option. Now the problem is I find an empty house often leaves me with little motivation. I tend to enjoy renting movies and going to bed early when the family is gone. Of course, with DU being in the Frozen Four tomorrow (and hopefully Saturday) - there's even more motivation for more fun and less work.

Regardless of the motivation I have to take part in my extra-curricular obligations (AppFuse and Spring Live), it's nice to know I have a great opportunity to work on them this weekend. Staying up late to work on this stuff just isn't any fun.

RE: No More Kids

I'm happy to report the procedure I had done yesterday was quick and relatively painless. I was definitely disappointed to hear from the Doctor that I wouldn't be getting any pain-killers, but I also figured that might be a good thing (maybe I wouldn't need them). The first couple of hours with a frozen bag of veggies wasn't bad. Then I think the combination of a bad cough and no more veggies did me in. I was in some pretty good pain yesterday afternoon, but after getting some frozen peas from the grocery store, I definitely felt better.

This morning I woke up with pain - in an unexpected location. It's on both sides, but along my inner wasteline. I'm guessing this is from all the coughing and is the same pain I would experience if I were lifting over 10 pounds. Oh well, hopefully I'll be pain-free tomorrow.

What's next in my career?

I've been pretty fortunate in my career so far. A few years ago, I was attending Web Designer conferences, learning more about HTML, Photoshop and Flash. At those conferences, I admired the speakers, the relationships they had with other speakers and how they really seemed to be enjoying the "speaking lifestyle." I thought to myself, "that's what I want to do."

Fast forward to today and I feel like I've accomplished everything I ever wanted to in my career. Now I'm experiencing an interesting state of mind. I don't really know what I want to do next. I'm certainly enjoying being a consultant and getting new gigs every 3-6 months, but I know if you want to make any real money as a consultant, you have to travel. When I say "real money", I mean $200-$300/hour, which equates to $400K-$600K/year. The problem with consulting is I don't want to travel. At all.

So I can continue being a consultant, making pretty good money, but I'm yearning for something more. I don't know what the "more" is, but I feel like I should have a plan for the next 5-10 years. I've had a couple of good offers for full-time jobs recently. The problem is that full-time employment generally doesn't appeal to me. The main reason is because I don't want to take a 50% pay cut. The second reason is because I tend to take 2-3 months off per year, and finally - I never seem to be that interested in the hiring company's mission statement.

The 2-3 months off is probably a misnomer because many of those weeks are for conferences, but I doubt I'd find a company that'd send me to conferences and pay for it.

On Monday, I was discussing this with a potential employer/client - and it hit me. I think I need to share my career aspirations with a full-time employer's to make it work. Since I'm at a point where I I don't know what my goals/desires are - it's pretty tough for me to see myself working for anyone but myself. What I do know is that it would drastically help if starting the company was my idea. The problem with this is I don't really have the motivation to start my own company right now. Sure I have Raible Designs and all, but to make real money as a non-consultant, I think you have to have a product. I could hire a bunch of consultants, but I don't really want to manage people - it seems like it'd be more fun to develop, ship and support product(s). Then I wouldn't have to travel at least.

This is all to say that I don't know what I'll do next in my career. Heck, I don't even know what I want to do. One things for sure though - my current gig is one of the best I've ever had. Awesome team, good rate, great location and super-easy commute. I think I'd be a fool to quit before my contract ends at the end of the year.

What are your career aspirations for the next 5 years? The next 10?

No More Kids

I've only ever wanted two kids. However, Julie has been playing with the idea of 4 ever since we had Jack. Her thought is "they're so damn perfect, let's have more!" I've always wanted 2, and so did she when we first met - but she grew up with a sister and they've always been best friends. Abbie doesn't have a sister, and Julie doesn't want an odd number of kids - hence her slight desire for four.

This Friday, all this talk of possibly having 4 kids will come to an end. I'm heading into the doctor's office for the Big V and will lose my ability to reproduce. I'm terrified, but hopefully the drugs will be good enough to ease my fears (and pain afterwards).

I'm supposed to "take it easy" for a week afterwards and not lift anything more than 10 pounds. This means I can't pick up Abbie or Jack, and I can barely pick up my backpack (w/ laptop) to go to work. No riding to work either. With all the "you can't dos", it almost seems like a mini-vacation. However, the thought of getting my nuts cut still sends chills down my spine.

DU going back to Frozen Four!

This past weekend I had a great time watching college hockey. DU played both Saturday and Sunday and won both games. This means they're going back to the Frozen Four. The best part? They're playing their arch rivals, Colorado College, in the first game next Thursday. Game starts at noon. Go DU! CC Sucks!

Free wi-fi at PDX

Looks like Portland Airport has some pretty good free wireless.

Free wireless internet access available on the main level of PDX

Time to order a beer from the Portland Brewery!

[Microsoft] Day 1 Begins

We arrived at the Microsoft Campus on a beachliner this morning at 7:30. They served us a nice buffet breakfast and now we're waiting for the first talk to start. They handed us a book titled "Writing Secure Code", which is a monster at 700+ pages and has a quote from Bill Gates on the bottom: "Required reading at Microsoft." I have a hard time believing that.

The worst part? No internet access - wireless or wired. I'm uploading this via Bluetooth on my phone - which is about to die. I forgot the charger at home, so hopefully I can borrow one from someone.

FYI, I e-mailed Scoble about a cord for my camera (forgot that at home too). He's going to try to hook me up with a replacement so I should be able to upload pictures later this afternoon.

This is gonna be good

So far this definitely looks like a wine and dine event. Jay Zimmerman was on my same flight from Denver, so we got to sit around the airport and wait for a ride together. I fully expected a Limo and a guy holding a "Raible" sign. No such luck - it took an hour for a car to show up and we had to call them several times.

We're staying at the Willows Lodge, which is definitely a luxury hotel. It's probably the nicest room I've stayed in outside of Vegas. King size bed, huge jacuzzi, nice stereo (playing when I entered the room). Not only that, but incidentals are covered. That's right folks, apparently we can go get a massage on Microsoft if we like. I'll be testing those waters in short order for sure. I talked with the guys at the front desk, and there's apparently 49 people staying here for this shindig.

The Lodge is out in the country, and right next door to the Red Hook Brewery and the Columbia Winery.

Update: The wine-ing has begun. I just got a knock on the door with a guy handing me a "present from Microsoft". A box full of crackers, cheese, chocolates and a bottle of wine. Let's hope there's a wine opener in here. Found it.

Update 2: Damn, after looking at the agenda, it doesn't look like there's any time for a massage. The worst part so far? The shuttle leaves for the M$ Campus tomorrow at 6:45 a.m.!

Sun, Hockey, Snow and Skiing

This weekend was another great example of why it rocks to live in Denver. On Saturday, Holly (Julie's sister) hosted a house-warming/birthday party and we enjoyed a few Coors Lights in the 70 degree weather. Saturday night, I took Abbie and a couple of friends to the DU Hockey game, and when we left it was snowing. Sidenote: Abbie has switched from calling it "Hockey" to "DU Hockey" and she's becoming very well versed in "Go DU!".

I woke up early yesterday morning, picked up a friend and after 2 hours of nasty roads and traffic, we were skiing Keystone at 10. There was 5 inches of fresh powder and the sun was out - meaning it was a beautiful day to be on the slopes. This morning it's still snowing and expected to continue for a few more days. I'm sure we'll get spring weather again soon, but not soon enough for Julie.

Discrimination by Light Rail

After a late night wrestling with AppFuse and Acegi Security, I decided to take it easy this morning and ride my bike to the Light Rail, then ride it downtown. I figured it might be a bit faster, and it'd also be nice to relax a bit more on the "commute". I arrived at the station as my train was leaving, so I quickly realized that it was probably not going to be faster, but it would probably take the same amount of time. I was still determined to be a sissy and not ride my bike to work. When the next train pulled up, the conductor got on the loud speaker and said "30th and Downing Station, No Bikes Sir." WTF?! I gave the guy a boboli¹ and grumbled to myself.

So I ended up riding to work today anyway. I took the Platte River Trail², which was a nice change of pace, but it was also closed in one spot, so I had to take a detour. Long story short: every time I try to cheat the ride to work by driving, taking the bus or light rail, it always backfires. Riding to work using the Wash Park/Cherry Creek Trail route is simply the fastest way to get here, bar none. Took me an hour to get here via Platte River. Oh well, at least it's a nice trail.

¹ Throw your hand in the air like you're flipping a pizza.
² Most of these pictures were actually on my ride, save the last one.